Windermere, FL
This isn't a "what's it worth" thread, but I'm looking for some thoughts on what to do with a particular pin. I'l apologize for the rambling, but I'm really struggling on what to do with this.
I am currently in possession of a Williams Indy Pinball Adventure that belongs to my Mom (who's in her mid 70's) here in Florida. She LOVES this machine as she's a big Indy fan, but it NEVER gets played (she doesn't really play). It's served for years as basically an expensive showpiece in their living room.
She bought it years ago, and to be quite frank she got ripped off pretty hard (they paid HUO prices for it... I wasn't aware they were doing it prior to their purchase 
). It is complete, but a reimport machine with an ok playfield (looks great from 5 foot, but insert wear, etc). The harness was cut at one point and put back together with automotive crimp connectors. Faded decals. Some repairs were attempted by a previous owner, but they borked it pretty badly. Several features did not work.
Due to time constraints and the fact that while it was local to me it wasn't actually at my house where I could really get into it, I've spent about a year off and on getting all the functionality back to good with short projects. Tearing it down small areas, cleaning, and trying to get it playing. Replaced a couple of boards with new. Everything works now as intended. Added cliffys. Replaced worn ramps, broken plastics, rubbers etc. At some point it was exposed to salt air and a lot of screws / brackets were corroded, so replaced those. Basically simple day projects but since it wasn't at my house (it's at my parents vacation home in Florida) I have been somewhat limited in how far I could really take it. It does play nicely now and everything works.
I still had a few things that I was going to do - I do have currently new brass legs, new decals, and a new pistol for it that I haven't gotten around to doing either. Originally I had intended on taking this thing all the way; brassed out, ColorDMD, etc. as a present to my parents. With it down here - and their intention to be in Florida permanently - I had planned the whole works... replace cabinet, etc.
Unfortunately, I found out that my parents are selling their home here in a Florida and moving back to Ohio so it now needs to go as well and will be out of my access. Even with all the work I've done, it still has some significant issues, including:
- Front corner of cabinet is cracked, so any shaking I fear could cause it to burst wide open. Also the lower right side of the head has some delaminating plywood
- Faded decals as mentioned
- Play field has insert wear
- Cut and poorly repaired harness as mentioned
- Still some metal pieces that need removed and cleaned, or replaced.
Given it needs to move (again!) in the next month or so, and my dad is not in any way capable of doing anything with it, I'm trying to figure out what to do with it - or rather what to suggest they do with it. Other than the cabinet issue, I think it is a decent player machine - or certainly could be with the parts I have on hand. They know that there are issues with it now that I've pointed them out, and understand it's a project at this point.
I think options are as follows:
1) Move it with the movers and pay someone in Ohio to replace the cabinet/do decals (at least) - I won't have it here to do myself, and with the moving truck going soon it needs to go on the truck back in its current state. I also believe that if they're going to go this far, that the harness needs done properly. Which then gets to a proper playfield swap... and we're at BIG MONEY even before labor costs - I'm thinking this is a $2500-3500 project here (PF, Cabinet, Labour). It also galls me to pay someone to do work I could do myself. With this also I'd have to handle the project remotely - find someone in Ohio to do the work, project manage it from here in Florida, etc. And honestly at the end of the day it's just going to sit as a decoration.
2) Ship it back unfixed. Tell them to stick it in a corner and never play it. Come back in 10 years and jettison it then. This bothers me as well since it's not only a decoration, but a non-functioning one.
3) Keep it here with me in storage until I eventually have time and space to get to it. That's probably a couple years from now, and to be frank I have my own machines I'd like to get to first. This means I'd have to ship it to Ohio once done from Florida... another 6-800$ in it. Also, I'm just not a fan of this particular game so I'm having a real hard time getting much more motivation to work on it. Quite frankly if it was mine, I'd probably just eventually trade it for something.
4) Tell them to jettison here in Florida to save the moving on it for whatever cash they can get for it.
What bothers me about this machine is I know they're getting up in years, and throwing good money after bad bothers me. I know it can be a really nice machine for the right person. But I also know my Mom loves this thing.
I don't have a place to set it up (though push comes to shove I can store it), and to be frank I really don't like the game to begin with (yes, I know, heathen I am). I have a few pins that I love (DW, D&D) and I have no issues doing pretty much anything on machines but living situation is I don't have the space to work on a project of this magnitude.
It's ultimately not up to me, but they're likely go with my recommendations on next steps. I'd really love some thoughts or ideas since I'm really struggling on this.
Barrie, ON
